George43Penge Why are hire bikes dumped everywhere? it makes me so mad
Everywhere I go hire bikes are dumped on the pavement, just abandoned. People leave them in the most awkward places, often the worst possible location, like sideways-on or right beside a lamppost or across a doorway or just blocking everything. Can people not see how awkward this is? What is up with their blinkered sense of self-entitlement?
⬆423 💬25
✨ penryjan 6h
I would fine all cyclists £100, that's everyone who's ever ridden a bike in public, even me.
⭐ obmit 5h
These are Lime bikes. They are green and electric so they go faster than you can pedal yourself. They cost £1 to hire and then 27p a minute. You have to have the Lime app (or Uber app) on your phone to be able to use them. They can only be used within a certain zone across most of inner London.
⌚ monkeytennis 4h
Hang on, 27p a minute, that's outrageous! A mere five minute ride costs £2.35 and that's more expensive than a bus! A 20 minute ride is £6.40 and that's like two coffees! Why do people use these bikes?!?
⌛ Bimbles 3h
Because it's cheaper than buying a bike, particularly if it keeps being stolen.
☔ McSpatula 42m
I used to own a bike but I had three stolen so these hire bikes are a godsend. I wouldn't leave my own bike in the street, even locked up, but these are chunky and self-locking so you can leave them anywhere and if they get nicked it's not your problem. Absolute gamechanger, it's transformed getting around London for me.
♋ zxcvbnm12 5h
It's blind people I feel sorry for. They have a hard enough job getting around anyway and now there are all these additional obstructions everywhere and imagine the injuries they could cause. Society makes all kinds of efforts to boost accessibility in all other forms of transport and then we let people scatter dangerous metal obstacles all over the pavement. Madness!
⛽ Greggers 4h
I drive a car so I don't understand why people need bikes.
☕ wingnutz 4h
My mates are always hopping on a Lime bike, it's like second nature to us. So convenient and saves getting on the bus with the grandads. And yeah they cost but everything costs these days, we don't care, we're quite used to apps taking our money without us noticing.
⛲ Ecosoldier 4h
Cycling is the best way to travel, it's green and clean and simple and fast! And OK so e-bikes aren't entirely green, and someone's forever driving round topping all the batteries up, but they're so much better than cars! Cut cyclists some slack, people, we're doing right by the planet.
⛔ clarxon 2h
Cyclists are awful people, they ride dangerously and go too fast and jump red lights and ride on the pavement, no wonder they dump their hire bikes wherever they bloody like. Delivery riders are the worst, zipping in front of you all the time because someone can't be arsed to leave the house to get a pizza. Adding hire bikes into the mix has been disastrous, our streets have become a wild lawless zone, and the Mayor does what exactly?
❌ ProudMick 1h
I blame the fascist Mayor because I assume he introduced these, and even if he didn't I hate him anyway. Bloody ULEZ! Labour really hates motorists, you wait til the next election they'll be turfed out because the people will rise up, it's just common sense.
⛵ trantella 4h
On my neighbourhood Facebook group we're always sharing photos of badly-parked hire bikes. We compete to see which photo gets the most hate. The best one we ever had was a bike blocking the ramp up to A&E at our local hospital. One of our group says he can't sleep at night because he's worried someone'll leave an e-bike outside his house and it'll catch fire.
♦ diamondgeezer 3h
I live near the edge of a hire bike zone so we have far more than our fair share of bikes dumped on the pavement because you literally cannot ride them any further. Useful if you want to use one though - there's always one available!
❓ DerekM 3h
The big problem is that these bikes are dockless. You don't get dumping problems with Santander bikes - well not often anyway - but once bikes don't have to be left in a particular place people just leave them anywhere.
⛪ 1992tilidie 53m
The issue is that different boroughs have different rules for parking. Some insist you park in Mandatory Zones, some have Preferred Parking, and some have no zones and just ask you to Park Responsibly. Fat chance.
♓ frizzoid 3h
You know you can hack these bikes don't you? You just snap the pedals or something and then you ride round for free all day, that's what today's youth do, and then it's no surprise they leave their hacked bike where the rest of us will trip over it.
✨ obmit 2h
I believe there are three bike hire schemes in London. Lime: £1 to unlock, then 27p per minute Human Forest: 10 minutes free daily, then 29p per minute + 50p parking fee Santander: £1.65 for 30 minutes plus £1.65 for every extra 30 minutes.
⌛ Bimbles 2h
Human Forest?! What kind of name is that?
✨ penryjan 12m
Don't forget some of these companies also do a 'pass' for regular riders, for example a 200 minute pass for £18.99, and then a hire bike can be cheaper than the tube.
➰ RPeggio 2h
I'm a cafe owner and I can't even put a table on the pavement without a permit, and yet cycling yobs can leave their metal monsters anywhere they like! I've bent Nick Ferrari's ear about this issue on multiple occasions.
⚡ BigYoda 1h
The problem is you can't move the bloody things if someone parks them badly. I'd move them out of the way myself but they're often very heavy. I know they're designed not to move after they're parked, but that doesn't help if they're parked somewhere stupid!
⛎ LucidTopiary 1h
These bikes cost a lot and people block pavements/drop kerbs with them all the time. I've had to knock them over before to get my wheelchair out of the road and onto the pavement. I feel awful about it as they are then a danger for visually impaired people, but I also need to get out of traffic and don't have that many options.
⛺ Kevsays 47m
It's the same people who push through ticket barriers, they're the ones parking their hire bikes irresponsibly. I'm only sorry the Tories lost the election so they won't be bringing in National Service! I'd like to see young people suffer more for their misdemeanours.
⛅ ambertopaz 7m
Some people are thoughtless - it's the same in all areas of life - get over it.
⚽ nutmegger179 30m
It is possible to think hire bikes are a good thing and also condemn those who dump them thoughtlessly. Why is social media obsessed with amplifying artificial arguments pretending everything's black and white? The world would be a better place without furious morons over-simplifying things.
